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Category Archives: Biology

WHY GNR?

GNR is an acronym for genetic engineering, nanotechnology, and robotics. These three areas of scientific research will drive economic growth and development in those countries which invest in the current research. African governments need to support these areas of research so that their smart creatives can build products and services once the technology can be commoditised for commercial purposes. If we do not invest, we will continue to be a marketplace or a place to dump external products and services.

GENETIC ENGINEERING

Genetic engineering promises to understand the science behind aging. It is basically the manipulation of genetic information to get the desired outcome. What happens to genetic information in old age? What is the genetic trigger for conditions such as Alzheimer’s? Our phenotype is the physical representation of our genotype. The genotype is the genetic information contained in the nucleus of our cells. At conception this information is contained in the 23 pairs of chromosomes we inherit from our parents. We get 23 chromosomes from each parent to make 23 pairs or 46 chromosomes. Genetic engineering seeks to understand the human genome so that we can change the information to get the desired outcome. More research is still being carried and this is why Africans must be proactive in the research. There are economic benefits if we can then develop products and services using the research material from this research.

NANOTECHNOLOGY

Nanotechnology promises to produce groundbreaking products such as more efficient solar panels, clothes that do not get wet etc. Imagine making windows that do not get dirty? There are many economic benefits to be derived if we understand the science behind nanotechnology. We can then manufacture products which can be sold to other countries. We can only do this if we invest in the current research into nanotechnology.

ROBOTICS

The jobs of the future belong to robots. Any jobs that are algorithmic in nature can be written out as a computer program that can instruct a robot to do the jobs that human beings have been doing. The people who will survive the taking away of jobs by robots are those who learn to program the robots. Africa should invest not only in robotics but in computer programming as well. There is no excuse for Africans to give in terms of resources to learn to program because now we have the internet. The internet has democratized information. The smartphone is a revolutionary product which has placed human knowledge into our palm. and if what I ma hearing is true, we may be soon having miniature robots running into ur bloodstream. But we leave that for now. It may take the time to accomplish. We are witnessing a major leap forward in the evolution of the human species. We are slowly merging with artificial intelligence to enhance our minds. The brain is a pattern recognition and story processing machine, the computer is a logic processing machine. Merging the two is an evolution, not a revolution.